Page 86 of Truths

Sitting in the Chapel with Jennings and Psycho, all Dax can think about is how he wants blood. Lots and lots of blood. He wants to make the scene fromThe Shiningwhen the elevator spills the river of blood look like a children's movie.

The last thing he ever expected was that Dani would have been involved with a different club. When they first got together, she'd told him she was familiar with the club life, but he never expected the abusive ex who scared her to be part of another club. In retrospect, he probably should have put those pieces together or at least asked. Maybe things would have been different. Gone differently. Maybe she wouldn't have gone through the hell she did.

“I don't even have words,” Jennings says. “The last thing I would've expected was that Ivan's in bed with our enemies.”

“You thought he was going to screw us over,” Psycho says, “so it's not exactly a giant leap.”

Nodding, he sighs. “Yeah, but I didn't think that screwing us over would mean working directly with O'Malley and Graves.”

“Tell me more about this asshole,” Dax says.

It's unnecessary to specify he's talking about Graves. The only person in this clubhouse who knows him best is Psycho, followed by Dani.

“He's not a good man. Not even close. He's as unhinged as they come.”

Tapping his fingers on the table, he tries to tamper down his temper. “And?”

“There may have been a time or two where I intervened to stop Ryan from killing Dani. Got my ass beat for it, but I can handle a hell of a lot more than he can dish out.”

An image of anyone trying to kill Dani sets Dax on fire. He leans forward with his elbows on the table. “What now?”

Psycho sighs, and he seems resigned to share everything without any sugarcoating. “He drinks. A lot. And when he gets drunk, he turns even uglier than he naturally is. Dani didn't even have to do something for him to lose his shit. One particular instance involved a pitchfork. Grabbed it during a screaming match, and I tackled his ass to the ground to stop him from stabbing her with it. Knocked his ass out and got her away from him. That landed me in chains for two days as he took out his anger on me.”

“How'd she even get involved with him in the first place?” Jennings asks. “She seems like a good girl. At least too good to not settle for a sociopath like him.”

“She comes from a really conservative family. The day she turned eighteen, she took off and never looked back. Ryanoffered her something she never even dreamed of, and he can be charming when he's not a sociopathic motherfucker. But once she was in, there was no getting out. The only way is death. But when he got locked up, she had the chance to get away from him. It's the ultimate betrayal in his eyes, and he was obviously pissed. Pissed and crazy creates a lethal combination.”

“And he had her taken and abused as punishment,” Dax says. “I want fucking blood. All his fucking blood. I want to bathe in it.”

Psycho's eyebrows raise. “That sounds like me.”

Jennings just nods, completely unfazed. “You'll get it. But we should look at our relationship with the RIO first. That poses the highest risk for us to not get what we want.”

“Fuck them. They don't have their house in order, and they've fucked their biggest client. I say we walk and tell them to shove it up their asses.”

Dax nods in agreement as the door opens after a quick knock. Brock sticks his shaved head in the room. “Sorry to interrupt, but I think you should hear this.”

“Come in,” Jennings says. “What is it?”

He comes into the room with a laptop and sits next to Psycho in VP's seat. “I finally got everything decrypted from Dimitri's laptop. We, uh, we kind of killed the wrong man.”

Looking at them in confusion, Dax shakes his head. “I thought Dimitri called the shots.”

“Ivan ranks higher than him,” Jennings says. “What the fuck did we do?”

Hitting play, they hear two men speaking in Russian. “This is gibberish to me,” Psycho says. “Any of you speak the language?”

Jennings shakes his head and Dax just shrugs. Brock laughs. “This one I had to run through a translation program. There are a few things, as they say, lost in translation, but it basically comes down to Ivan telling Dimitri to put a hit out on the head ofthe Irish Mafia. Some guy named O'Connor. This is the failed hit that started the whole mess.”

“Ivan put the hit out, just like Dimitri said,” Psycho says. “But why would the Irish target Dimitri?”

“That's where this second recording comes into play. I have no idea how Dimitri got it because, as far as I can tell, he's not in the room.”

O’Malley: My boss wants Dimitri's head on a platter.

Ivan: We will get him. I wish I had control over him, but I do not. I have no idea why he'd want to attack O'Connor, but you will get him. I promise that.

O’Malley: Attacking the fucking Drifters is doing nothing. They are holding their ground, and they're not even attacking back. I sent a slew of men to the clubhouse to shoot it up, and they just killed everyone. No action coming back to give us a chance to capture someone and use as leverage to exchange for Dimitri. We want him, Ivan.

---